engagements
Seulbie and David first date was at Golden Gate Park so for their engagement session, we decided to shoot in the park again. I met them at the Music Concourse which provided us many backdrops for portraits. I love shooting at the Music Concourse as the DeYoung Museum, Cal Academy of Sciences and the Music Concourse itself provides a lot of interesting architectural elements to play with.
Shuang and Luke have traveled the world together and got engaged in Santorini last year. Wanting to keep it simple, they decided on a small intimate dinner party wedding later this year. But to celebrate and mark the occasion, they reached out to me for an extended engagement session in San Francisco. For their shoot, we started off at the San Francisco Botanical Garden before walking the cliffs at Lands End. As the fog started rolling in, we wrapped up the shoot in the Presidio at Andy Goldsworthys’ Wood Line.
Emily and Akshai love taking their dog Jasper out for walks in the woods so after falling in love with the redwood grove photos on my website, they knew they wanted to take their engagement photos there. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, forests have a special place in Emily’s heart. We met at the park on a warm summer morning and explored the woods with Jasper in tow. While Emily and Akshai smooched and posed for photos, Jasper enjoyed dashing about the forest floor finding sticks often too big for his mouth. Such a fun morning with these three!
Stephanie and Matt have lived in the Haight-Ashbury neighorhood for seven years and really wanted to commemorate a few of their favorite spots with their engagement session. Having also lived in the neighborhood back in my 20s, I had a blast walking the streets with these two and chatting about what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. We started off with a few slices of pizza at Escape From NY Pizza before walking over to Amoeba Records (still staying strong after all these years) to dig through their vinyl collection. Then it was a quick pit stop to their cute apartment before making the blustery, foggy and chilly trek up to the top of Corona Heights Park. Karl the Fog was putting on quite a show where the view should have been but it wouldn’t be a San Francisco photo shoot without him.
Yun and Will have had multiple wedding celebrations from one at Burning Man to a celebration in China. For their Bay Area celebration, they wanted to include an engagement session in one of their favorite places in San Francisco, the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. With 55 acres of garden to explore, we were able to get a lot of variety from our one hour session. Our timing was perfect as the cherry blossoms were in full bloom by the Moon Viewing Platform. Afterwards, we headed over to the redwood grove where Yun used to spend a lot of time wandering the trails. We then made a quick stop at the succulent garden before wrapping up the shoot at the bamboo grove where the towering stalks made for a dramatic backdrop.
Katie and Jack are planning to get married on the East Coast but wanted an engagement session that reflected where their relationship blossomed. On a cool San Francisco evening, I met up with Katie and Jack at Lands End for their shoot. The sunlight shone through the cypress trees as we explored the area before heading down to the Sutro Baths ruins down by the water where we snapped more portraits among the crashing waves.
Linden and Robin met me in my favorite spot in the Oakland hills for a bit of redwood forest wanderings one morning in May. They were drawn to the natural beauty of these woods, the way the light filtered through the trees and how green everything was becoming after the winter rains. After the redwoods, we went down the road a bit to a lush field of eucalyptus where they cuddle and laughed, walking through the tall grass. Linden and Robin were so at ease with each other during our shoot, it made the morning together fly by. I can’t wait for their wedding next year!
Iva and Daniel are getting married in Carmel and love the California coast so much that they decided to also do their engagement session there. We met up on a cloudy grey day at Rocky Point Restaurant which has a stunning view of Big Sur and Rocky Point Bridge. We took some photos along the cliffs and watched the storm clouds roll in as the deep blue waves crashed along the rocks. Afterwards, we headed to Garrapata Beach State Park and hiked down to Calla Lily Valley along Doud Creek. The magical scene was made even more fantastic as rain lightly began to fall. I’m so grateful to have been show this special little place along the coast!
Coney and Sunny were married with a simple courthouse ceremony in Los Angeles earlier this year but never really got a chance for some proper photos. Coney, a talented illustrator with a love of nature, always dreamed of taking photos in Muir Woods, ever since she fell in love with the place several years ago. As a big fan of redwood forests, I was immediately on board to do a portrait session with this sweet couple in one of my favorite places. We heading into the woods an hour before the park closed and had most of the trails to ourselves. As I took them deeper into the park, we stumbled across a patch of ladybugs and one took a liking to Coney. Afterward a quick outfit change, we drove up to Mount Tamalpais for a new more photos just as the sun disappeared.
Jazmin and Kristin met while playing basketball so for their engagement session, they chose one of the prettiest courts in San Francisco. Located two stories up, the court at the Cameron House in Chinatown boasts one of the best views of the city. Afterwards, we headed to catch sunset at Baker Beach for that classic Golden Gate Bridge photos.
Katya and Matt met at UC Berkeley and spent a lot of time together at the nearby Tilden Park. For their autumn engagement session, we explored the Jewel Lake trail and took in the gorgeous fall foliage.
Gina and Scott wanted to do something a little different for their engagement session, so they chose the abandoned naval base in Alameda. We started with the rusted and decaying airplane hangars before having a little fun on their skateboards. We wrapped up the shoot with a sunset overlooking the San Francisco city skyline.
